“Earth Day is an international day devoted to our planet. It draws attention to the environment and promotes conservation and sustainability. Millions of people took to the streets of US cities and towns on 22 April 1970 in mass protests over the damage being done to the planet and its resources. The protests brought together people from all walks of American life – accounting for about 10% of the US population – to demonstrate and voice their demands for sustainable change. The Earth Day website calls it the birth of the modern environmental movement.

The Earth Day demonstrations left an indelible mark on US policy. By the end of 1970, the US Environmental Protection Agency came into being and a stream of laws followed to help protect the environment. These included the National Environmental Education Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Clean Air Act. Further legislation was soon introduced to protect water quality, endangered species and to control the use of harmful chemicals and pesticides.

Earth Day went beyond the US in 1990. Around 200 million people from 141 countries joined efforts to boost recycling around the world that year, paving the way for the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. This “Earth Summit”, as it became known, led to the formation of the UN Convention on Climate Change and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, along with the Commission on Sustainable Development to monitor and report on the implementation of Earth Summit agreements. Now a truly global movement, Earth Day has become a leading light in the fight to combat climate change, raising awareness of environmental issues and providing a forum for people to get involved. Our survival could depend on it.” World Economic Forum

********************

US President Biden signed an Executive Order today meant to protect forests from wildfires after he delivered Earth Day remarks on climate change and forest restoration and protection.

********************

On our home front, my husband trimmed dead branches from some of our trees to help keep them healthy.

“Global warming is happening at a faster rate than ever. Technology is being explored to remove CO2 – the biggest culprit of climate change – from the atmosphere. Meanwhile, trees are one of our most powerful weapons in the fight against climate change.
Trees are the ultimate carbon capture and storage machines. Like great carbon sinks, woods and forests absorb atmospheric carbon and lock it up for centuries. They do this through photosynthesis. The entire woodland ecosystem plays a huge role in locking up carbon, including the living wood, roots, leaves, deadwood, surrounding soils and its associated vegetation. Trees also do more than just capture carbon. They also fight the cruel effects of a changing climate. They can help: Prevent flooding, reduce city temperatures, reduce pollution, and keep soil nutrient-rich.” Woodland Trust

********************

While, he was doing that, I tended my indoors-started flower and herb seedlings that will go outside as soon as the weather is warm enough and they are big enough. I grow things totally organically.

“Flowers appear on plants, which themselves are beneficial to our ecology and environment. As is well-known, plants produce much of the oxygen in our atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis. During the cycle of photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air through their leaves. Then, using sunlight, water, and minerals from the soil, plants absorb nutrients and release oxygen into the air as a byproduct.”

********************

The above photo is “White Wedding” Zinnias that have just sprouted.
One still has the seed's shell still attached.
I wasn’t late in getting the seeds planted. However, like our outdoors plants, everything seems to be progressing slowly this year. I don’t use indoor lights nor supplemental heat to start my new plants. I start them in the unheated Solar Room. As a result, they respond to the weather fluctuations outdoors. The weather this Spring has extremely variable from day to day. It has variated by as much as 60 degrees in a single 24 hour cycle. Because tempts in the Solar Room can drop quite low when outdoors tempts are low, I’m happy that many of the new seedlings have finally sprouted and not died off from the unseasonable cold.